FILM HIGHLIGHT

Czech It Off Your Culture List

The Czech Embassy, one of the most culturally active missions in town, starts off fall with a full lineup of eclectic events, from a historical retrospective of the Velvet Revolution to a canine- and kitty-themed happy hour.

The centerpiece will be the embassy’s annual Mutual Inspirations Festival, which highlights how Czechs and Americans have influenced each other (also see our festival coverage on Václav Havel in the October 2013 issue and on Franz Kafka the October 2014 issue).

This year, the festival celebrates its 10th anniversary and also coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, the nonviolent uprising by students and other dissidents that led to the downfall of communist rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989.

As such, the focus of the 2019 festival will be on Marta Kubišová, a legendary singer and freedom fighter who united Velvet Revolution protesters through her signature ballad, “A Prayer for Marta.”

On Sept. 12, the embassy launches the festival with “The Velvet Effect,” an exhibition created by students from the University of West Bohemia that illustrates the revolution and its students and dissident leaders such as Kubišová and Havel. The opening will also feature Czech mezzo-soprano Pavlína Horáková and pianist Camilla Mráz performing Kubišová’s most renowned songs.

The festival continues with a diverse range of events, including the Sept. 17 film “Larks on a String” and the Sept. 19 book launch of “ABCZ or All You Need to Know about Czechia and the Czechs,” which explores modern Czech cultural identity using each letter of the alphabet.

But perhaps the most interesting highlight will be “Barks & Beer,” a happy hour on Sept. 14 co-hosted with City Dogs Rescue & City Kitties and held at the Czech Embassy, where patrons will have the opportunity to adopt local dogs and cats. The happy hour, in fact, is part of the overall festival theme because after the Velvet Revolution, Kubišová focused on her love for animals by hosting a popular show about abandoned pets called “Do You Want Me? (Chcete mě?).”

Of course, beer holds a special place in many Czech hearts, so as part of the embassy’s ongoing “Czech Beer Days” series, it’s hosting a lecture on Sept. 30 by Prague-based beer expert Evan Rail on the 1,000-year history of Czech brewing, examining the cultural context of beer in everyday life and why Czechs drink the most beer in the world.

The Czechs are also participating in another unique sensory festival called EUROBEATS, which will feature performers from 10 European nations who are at the forefront of the the electronic music scene. The first night of the festival on Sept. 27 at Union Station includes visual artist and chanteuse Migloko (Lithuania); the electric energy and robotic precision of Stockholm-based Kissey (Sweden); the self-made electro-jazz drumming wizard Cid Rim (Austria); Afro-Portuguese electronic producer DJ Nidia (Portugal); and techno aficionado Samuli Kemppi (Finland).

For more information, visit www.mutualinspirations.org.

— Anna Gawel

EVENT CATEGORIES

ART

Through Sept. 2

Infinite Space: A Retrospective by Refik Anadol

In taking the data that flows around us as his primary material and the neural network of a computerized mind as his collaborator, Refik Anadol creates radical visualizations of our digitized memories, expanding the possibilities of architecture, narrative and the body in motion. The exhibition will take over ARTECHOUSE galleries featuring Anadol’s infamous immersive installation titled “Infinity Room” seen by more than 1 million people around the world, including a half million during a tour in China alone last year, three infinity boxes and a selection of multimedia works spanning his variegated career.

ARTECHOUSE

Sept. 3 to Dec. 14

Moves Like Water: New Curators Open the Corcoran Legacy Collection

This exhibition contains select paintings and photographs from the collection of 9,000 artworks the AU Museum received as a gift from the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Following the closure of the Corcoran, more than 19,456 works from the collection were distrubted to museums and institutions in Washington, D.C. This is the first in-depth exhibition at AU Museum of work from the collection and is inspired by Walter Hopps, briefly the director of the Corcoran and an American curator of contemporary art.

American University Museum

Sept. 3 to Oct. 20

Grace Hartigan and Helene Herzbrun: Reframing Abstract Expressionism

This exhibition features painting by Grace Hartigan (1922-2008) and Helene Herzbrun (1922-1984), painters of the second Abstract Expressionist generation who lived and worked as influential artists and teachers in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., region for many decades.

American University Museum

Sept. 4 to Oct. 30

100 Years of Cartoons in El Universal

The exhibit showcases a sampling of the thousands of cartoons published over the last 100 years in the widely known Mexican newspaper, El Universal, which has published work from almost all Mexican cartoonists of the 20th century. The cartoons read as a history of Mexico shaped by art, humor and a critical eye.

Mexican Cultural Institute

Sept. 6 27

Newly Connected: Contemporary Works by Three Korean American Artists

This diverse group exhibition illuminates the experience of immigrants acclimating in America through video, installation, and painting works by three contemporary artists: Namwon Choi, Kyoung eun Kang and Kieun Kim. They each express their personal emotional transitions after emigrating, including the anxiety of life in a foreign environment, the hope and comfort that comes with adaptation, the process of forming new relationships with both people and places, and the resulting discovery of one’s newly formed identity.

Korean Cultural Center

Through Sept. 8

The Evidence Room

This installation gives visual testament to the atrocities of the Holocaust, drawing on architectural forensic evidence to focus attention on the architecture that made the Auschwitz concentration camp a systematic factory for mass murder.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Through Sept. 8

Roots of Peace: Carlos Páez Vilaró Works and Writings

This retrospective looks at the work of Carlos Páez Vilaró, a Uruguayan painter, potter, sculptor, muralist, writer, composer and builder. Specifically, it showcases paintings, books and other archival materials examining the history of the “Roots of Peace” mural, painted in 1960. Spanning over 530 feet in a tunnel linking the OAS main building in D.C. and the Art Museum of the Americas building, “Roots of Peace” is one of the longest murals in the world. Its goal is to serve as a graphic statement of continental peace and harmony throughout the Western Hemisphere, highlighting the spiritual unity that bonds peoples of the Americas while respecting their unique differences.

OAS Art Museum of the Americas

Through Sept. 15

Oliver Lee Jackson: Recent Paintings

American painter, printmaker, and sculptor Oliver Lee Jackson (b. 1935) has created a complex body of work which masterfully weaves together visual influences ranging from the Renaissance to modernism with principles of rhythm and improvisation drawn from his study of African cultures and American jazz.

National Gallery of Art

Sept. 19 to Jan. 20

Live Dangerously

“Live Dangerously” reveals the bold and dynamic ways in which female bodies inhabit and activate the natural world. Twelve groundbreaking photographers use humor, drama, ambiguity and innovative storytelling to illuminate the landscape as means of self-empowerment and personal expression. A major section of the exhibition showcases the performative and fantastical works of Janaina Tschäpe. For the first time, NMWA will exhibit all 100 large-scale photographs in the series “100 Little Deaths” (1996-2002), in which the artist stages her own body within sites from her travels around the world.

National Museum of Women in the Arts

Through Sept. 22

The Warmth of Other Suns

Through installations, videos, paintings and documentary images, 75 historical and contemporary artists — from the United States as well as Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Syria, Turkey, the U.K., Vietnam and more — pose urgent questions around the experiences and perceptions of migration and the current global refugee crisis.

The Phillips Collection

Through Sept. 27

Animals in Japanese Outsider Art

This exhibition, held in tandem with “Life of Animals in Japanese Art” at the National Gallery of Art, features beautiful works of art created by those with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses, who often depict animals with a rich color palette and a variety of unique patterns, interpreted from a truly distinctive point of view. The two exhibits could even be said to be the Olympics and Special Olympics of Japanese artwork.

Japan Information & Culture Center

Through Sept. 29

Good as Gold: Fashioning Senegalese Women

In the cities of the West African nation of Senegal, stylish women have often used jewelry as part of an overall strategy of exhibiting their elegance and prestige. Rooted in the Wolof concept of sañse (dressing up, looking and feeling good), “Good as Gold” examines the production, display, and circulation of gold in Senegal as it celebrates a significant gift of gold jewelry to the National Museum of African Art’s collection.

National Museum of African Art

Through Sept. 29

Rafael Soriano: Cabezas (Heads)

This exhibition features more than 20 significant artworks by Cuban-born painter Rafael Soriano (1920-2015), one of the major Latin American artists of his generation. Soriano stands apart from his peers who largely focused on formalism and gestural abstraction because he developed his own visual vocabulary informed by abstraction yet steeped in metaphysical meaning. Drawing on loans from the Rafael Soriano Foundation, this exhibit chronicles the development of Soriano’s unique biomorphic style, which culminated in a specific body of work depicting the human head. This is the first exhibit devoted to Soriano’s important series of paintings of heads, which are some of the artist’s most figurative and introspective works.

Art Museum of the Americas

Through Oct. 12

Reconciling City and Nature

Architect Mario Schjetnan and his Mexico-based team Grupo de Diseño Urbano present the possibility to conceive — through science, art and design — a different form of constructing our human habitat, establishing new paradigms for the present and future of our cities. For over 42 years, he has constructed or transformed sites based on the concept of “design with nature.” Through extensive large-format photographs, models, sketches and original drawings, this exhibit showcases iconic projects executed in Mexico and the U.S., such as Xochimilco Ecological Park, the rehabilitation of Chapultepec Park and the public garden “Small Tribute to Immigrant Workers” in California.

Mexican Cultural Institute

Through Oct. 18

Lullaby by Georgia Saxelby

“Lullaby” explores the relationship between architecture, gender and ritual within the monumental landscape of Washington, D.C. This solo exhibition presents Australian-born, U.S.-based artist Georgia Saxelby’s recent video installation that documents a series of performances staged at five of the monuments on Washington’s National Mall. Collaborating with performers Viva Soudan and Bailey Nolan, the artist developed a series of imagined ritual gestures that repurpose the heroic forms and masculine iconography ubiquitous in the nation’s capital. In doing so, Saxelby questions the symbolic spaces in which we perform our identities and value systems today.

Gallery @ Embassy of Australia

Through Oct. 20

Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths

More than 225 works of art — including blades and currencies in myriad shapes and sizes, wood sculptures studded with iron, musical instruments and elaborate body adornments — reveal the histories of invention and technical sophistication that led African blacksmiths to transform one of Earth’s most fundamental natural resources into objects of life-changing utility, empowerment, prestige, artistry and spiritual potency.

National Museum of African Art

Through Oct. 27

Revolutionary Reflections: French Memories of the War for America

This exhibition explores how the French king’s officers understood the American Revolution and their role in the achievement of American independence, and how they remembered the war in the years that followed—years of revolutionary upheaval in France that included the execution of the king and many of their brothers-in-arms.

American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati

Through Nov. 17

Portraits of the World: Korea

Pioneering feminist artist Yun Suknam (born 1939) uses portraiture to gain insights into the lives of women, past and present. A wood assemblage portrait of her mother is the centerpiece of this exhibition, which includes portraits of American artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Louise Nevelson, Marisol, Kiki Smith and Nancy Spero.

National Portrait Gallery

Through Dec. 15

Fast Fashion/Slow Art

“Fast Fashion/Slow Art” scrutinizes today’s garment industry. A diverse group of emerging and established contemporary artists and filmmakers including Julia Brown, Cat Mazza, Hito Steyerl and Rosemarie Trockel explore issues of waste, consumerism and the human cost of mass production through 11 films and video installations.

GW Art Galleries

Through 2019

Urban Challenges

According to the U.N., 2.5 billion people are expected to live in cities by 2050. This will force cities to find new ways to handle the increased demands on natural resources, housing and infrastructure. This exhibition presents some of the social, economic and technological solutions proposed by Sweden to absorb the impact of our rapidly growing urban environment while leaving the environmental legacy next generations deserve. Come and find out more about Guerilla Crafts, Democratic Architecture and the mixed reality Block Builder application in large-scale environments. Part of the Swedish Embassy’s 2019 thematic programming “Smart Societies – Creative & Inclusive”; for information, visit www.swedenabroad.se/en/embassies/usa-washington/current/calendar/.

House of Sweden

Through Jan. 5, 2020

By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs

The year 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969. Photography played a significant role both in preparing for the mission and in shaping the cultural consciousness of the event. An exhibition of some 50 works will include a selection of photographs from the unmanned Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter missions that led up to Apollo 11.

National Gallery of Art

Through Jan. 5, 2020

Ginny Ruffner: Reforestation of the Imagination

Imagine an apocalyptic landscape. It appears barren, devastated and hopeless. It is not. At the Renwick Gallery, internationally renowned artist Ginny Ruffner creates a seemingly bleak environment that suddenly evolves into a thriving floral oasis by combining traditional sculpture with augmented reality (AR) technology.

Renwick Gallery

Through Jan. 5, 2020

A Monument to Shakespeare

The Folger Shakespeare Library is throwing back the curtains on its origins and exciting future in an exhibition where visitors are invited to play, lounge, be curious and see more of the Folger Shakespeare Library than ever before. Among the treats: rummage through Henry Folger’s desk and read the correspondences that brought the Folger to the nation’s capital; explore large scale reproductions of Cret’s detailed architectural drawings, newly digitized for this exhibition; and visit the first complete edition of Shakespeare’s plays published in 1623.

Folger Shakespeare Library

Through Jan. 12, 2020

Mid-Century Master: The Photography of Alfred Eisenstaedt

When he photographed her for the November 5, 1965 issue of Life magazine, Alfred Eisenstaedt cemented Marjorie Merriweather Post’s place among the most notable people of the 20th century. Featuring nearly fifty Eisenstaedt photographs and ephemera from his career in photojournalism, focusing on his timeless images of life in the mid-20th-century and the era’s most celebrated figures, this special exhibition will explore the relationship between Post and Eisenstaedt and the broader body of Eisenstaedt’s work documenting life in the mid-twentieth century.

Hillwood Museum, Estate & Gardens

Through Spring 2020

Animals, Collected

The National Building Museum is home to 320,000 objects related to the built environment. Many of these artifacts in the permanent collection have never been displayed. “Animals, Collected” is a chance to explore some of the museum’s most unusual treasures — through the lens of the animal kingdom.

National Building Museum

Through July 5, 2020

I Am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africa

Taking its name from a 1970’s feminist anthem, “I Am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africa” draws upon a selection of artworks by women artists from the National Museum of African Art’s permanent collection to reveal a more contemporary feminism that recognizes the contributions of women to the most pressing issues of their times. With experimental and sophisticated use of diverse media, the 27 featured artists offer insightful and visually stunning approaches to matters of community, faith, the environment, politics, colonial encounters, racism, identity and more.

National Museum of African Art

DISCUSSIONS

Tue., Sept. 3

Women’s Blood Can Tell Stories

Meet Colombian writer Melba Escobar, who will talk about the role of women in Latin American literature through her latest book, “La mujer que hablaba sola (The woman who spoke alone).” For information, visit colombiaemb.org.

Embassy of Colombia

Thu., Sept. 5, 6:45 p.m.

Aristotle and Alexander: The Power of a Teacher

The nearly 20-year relationship between the ancient world’s most profound philosopher and his student—the world’s most powerful conqueror—reveals a stark contrast: One dominated by the power of his mind, the other by the might of his sword. Author and classics professor John Prevas examines a fascinating saga of ideals, ego, brutality, and betrayal that played out against the backdrop of an empire. Tickets are $45; for information, visit smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center

Fri., Sept. 13, 2 to 6 p.m.

Symposium: The Vienna Model – Social Housing for the 21st Century

The social housing system of the Austrian capital of Vienna represents a model of success that enjoys international recognition as it demonstrates the importance of access to affordable housing for all. This effective model has led Vienna to be consistently ranked as one of the world’s most livable cities. To share this achievements, Vienna’s public housing agency created a traveling multimedia exhibition, “The Municipality is Building. Vienna Residential Construction 1920 to 2020,” which will be on view at the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation’s Kibel Gallery from Sept. 13 to Oct. 20. This symposium kicks off the exhibition opening. For information, visit acfdc.org/events-2019/social-housing.

University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

Sat., Sept. 14, 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

The Phoenicians and Their Colonies

The Phoenicians were a seminal force in establishing urban life and literacy in the ancient Mediterranean. They excelled in seamanship, naval warfare, literature and astronomy. They gave the Greeks the alphabet, papyrus and celestial navigation, and their merchants, setting out from Lebanon, established outposts across the Mediterranean from Cyprus to the Atlantic shores of Iberia. Archaeologist Robert Stieglitz explores the marvelous cultural heritage of the Phoenicians as revealed by historical sources and impressive archaeological discoveries. Tickets are $140; for information, visit smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center

Thu., Sept. 19, 6:45 p.m.

Urban Architecture in Ancient Angkor: Old Temples and New Findings

Learn how recent high-tech surveys and archaeological discoveries have brought monuments like the ancient Cambodian capital of Koh Ker and the temples of Banteay Srei and Ta Keo to center stage, along with better-known sites like Angkor Wat. Tickets are $45; for information, visit smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center

Sat., Sept. 21, 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

Elizabeth I: Creating the Queen

Tudor and Renaissance scholar Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger leads a journey through the life and reign of Elizabeth I. She explores the impact of Elizabeth’s childhood and early experiences, how she dealt with challenges to her throne, the ways she navigated England’s changing place in Europe, her most important relationships and the reasons this monarch left such a lasting mark through the centuries. Tickets are $140; for information, visit smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center

Mon., Sept. 23, 6:45 p.m.

The League of Nations: The Quest for World Peace Between Wars

President Woodrow Wilson championed the prophetic idea of collective security at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, one that became realized the following year in the founding of the League of Nations. He personally negotiated the league’s covenant and inserted it into the Treaty of Versailles. Though Wilson was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, the United States never joined the league, hobbling the organization’s future. Historian Garrett Peck examines how the League of Nations came to be, its successes and failures over its 26 years of existence, and its demise and resurrection through the United Nations after World War II. Tickets are $45; for information, visit smithsonianassociates.org.

S. Dillon Ripley Center

Tue., Sept. 24, 6:30 p.m.

Unhappy Separations: Enslaved Families of Mount Vernon

Jessie MacLeod, associate curator at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, reveals the stories of the enslaved families there and resilience and resistance of those whose lives were inextricably bound to the Washington and Custis families.

Tudor Place

FESTIVALS

Through Sept. 27

Fair Water: A Right of All

Inspired by the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Embassy of Spain — in collaboration with the Mexican Cultural Institute, the Water and Sanitation Cooperation Fund from the Spanish Cooperation, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade and other institutions — presents a series of events dedicated to the right to safe drinking water and sanitation in the fields of diplomacy, human rights, sustainable development, and arts and culture. As part of the program, on the joint front lawn of the Spanish and Mexican cultural institutes on 16th Street, NW, Spain-based art collective Luzinterruptus will display “La Cascada,” a 13-foot high and 30-foot long art installation made with almost 1,000 recycled plastic buckets. For information, visit www.spainculture.us/city/washington-dc/fair-water-a-right-of-all/.

Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain

Sept. 27 to 28

EUROBEATS Festival

The EUROBEATS Festival will feature 10 European electronic musicians from 10 countries at Union Stage from 6 p.m. to 1:35 a.m. on Sept. 27 and 28. The festival highlights top European artists at the forefront of the electronic music scene. Tickets are free, but RSVP is required. For information, visit acfdc.org/events-2019/eurobeats.

Union Station

GALAS/FUNDRAISERS

Thu., Sept. 5, 7 to 9:30 p.m.

ArgentinaConnect @ Dupont Underground

ArgentinaConnect has become a signature networking event by CEDA to raise funds for the nonprofit’s work to improve the education and health of vulnerable people in Argentina. Chaired by Mercedes de Campos, wife of the Argentina ambassador, the event features live tango dancer, music, a display of Argentine videos and images, and cash bar featuring Argentine wines. Tickets are $50 to $500. For information, visit http://cedawashington.org/event/argentinaconnect2019/.

Dupont Underground

Tue., Sept. 10, 6 to 11 p.m.

41st Annual Ambassadors Ball

The annual Ambassadors Ball, a premiere event in the Washington fall social season for the past 40 years, has raised more than $21 million to support the National MS Society. The 41st Ambassadors Ball, with Italian Ambassador Armando Varricchio and his wife serving as honorary co-chairs, welcomes members of Congress, ambassadors, business and philanthropic leaders to honor the diplomatic corps for its charitable activities and humanitarian endeavors. Individual tickets are $600. For information, visit nationalmssociety.org/Chapters/MDM/Fundraising-Events/Ambassadors-Ball.

The Anthem at The Wharf

Sat., Sept. 14, 7 p.m.

2019 Wolf Trap Ball

This year’s Wolf Trap Ball will be held in partnership with the Embassy of Singapore. Proceeds from this dinner and dancing celebration on Wolf Trap’s magnificent Filene Center stage support Wolf Trap Foundation’s arts and education programs. This year’s ball partnership is of special significance, as Singapore has just become the first international affiliate of the acclaimed Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts. Tickets start at $1,000; for information, visit community.wolftrap.org/event-wolf-trap-ball-ext.

Wolf Trap Filene Center

MUSIC

Sun., Sept. 8, 8 p.m.

Gipsy Kings Featuring Nicolas Reyes and Tonino Baliardo

The New York Times calls the Gipsy Kings “Explosive” and “brilliant.” Get ready to dance with Wolf Trap’s favorite flamenco kings behind “Bamboleo” and “Djobi Djoba.” Tickets are $39.50.

Wolf Trap

Sat., Sept. 28, 7 p.m.

National Symphony Orchestra: Season Opening Gala Concert

Our adventure begins with a concert of favorites influenced by jazz. Gianandrea Noseda’s lively program explores how great composers of the last century have embraced the distinctly American art form with gusto. Pianist extraordinaire Yuja Wang joins Noseda for Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1, an enduring masterpiece reminiscent of jazzy vaudeville with high-paced rhythms and comical punch lines. Tickets are $65 to $199.

Kennedy Center Concert Hall

Fri., Sept. 13, 7:30 p.m.

Irina Muresanu, Violin

The Embassy Series kicks off its 25th year with Romanian violinist Irina Muresanu, who has won the hearts of audiences and critics alike with her “irresistible” (Boston Globe) performances of classic, romantic and modern repertoire that blends “musical luster, melting lyricism and colorful conception (The Los Angeles Times). This program features an international lineup of music from Romania, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Germany, Iran, India, China and the U.S. Tickets are $90, including buffet and wine. For information, visit embassyseries.org.

Embassy of Romania

Tue., Sept. 17, 7:30 p.m.

Roman Rabinovich, Piano

Roman Rabinovich, an Israeli pianist born in Uzbekistan, won the 2008 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition and has performed in the United States, Europe and Israel at places such as Gewandhaus, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Kennedy Center. Tickets are $125, including buffet, wine and valet parking. For information, visit embassyseries.org.

Embassy of Uzbekistan

Fri., Sept. 20, 7 p.m.

In OnStage Korea’s 4th showcase of the 2019 season, the Korean Cultural Center presents “A Sign of Rain” by Kim So Ra’s Janggu Project, which shows the sensory rhythm through the dismantling of traditional rhythms and collaboration with other genres. Tickets are free but RSVPs are required and can be made through www.koreaculturedc.org.

Studio Theatre

THEATER

Sept. 3 to Oct. 13

Henry IV

The young Prince Hal spends his days carousing in seedy taverns with criminals and lowly commoners, much to the dismay of his father. Winding from the Boar’s Head Tavern to the shadows of Gad’s Hill, Hal’s path to the throne may be unusual, but it eventually leads him to the one place where questions of honor and reputation come to a head: the battlefield. Tickets are $42 to $85.

Folger Theatre

Sept. 4 to 29

Love Sick

“Love Sick” tells the story of a young wife in a passionless marriage who discovers she has an unseen admirer Intrigued, she begins a mysterious and dizzying journey of sexual and personal empowerment in this tale inspired by the ancient poetry known as the “Song of Songs” that fuses a thrilling original score, Middle Eastern harmonics, dazzling choreography and a timeless story of passion and awakening. Tickets are $39 to $69.

Theater J at Edlavitch DCJCC

Sept. 4 to Oct. 6

Doubt: A Parable

The Bronx, 1964: Suspicions surface at a parochial school about a charismatic young priest’s interest in a Catholic school’s first and only black student. Absent hard proof, Sister Aloysius, the school’s starched and self-assured principal, tries to protect the innocent — but is she doing God’s work or is her certitude actually pride?

Tickets are $60 to $90

Studio Theatre

Sept. 5 to 22

Butterfly

IN Series begins its 2019-2020 LEAN-IN Season with a new version of Puccini’s beloved “Madama Butterfly.” Stripped of the original’s layers of exoticism and artifice, and wrestling with its troubling issues of racism and misogyny, this reworking arrives at an intimate theater experience that reveals the raw emotional power held within this unforgettable score. Tickets are $46.

Source Theatre

Through Sept. 7

Disney’s Aladdin

From the producer of “The Lion King” comes the timeless story of “Aladdin” in a thrilling new production filled with unforgettable beauty, magic, comedy and breathtaking spectacle. Tickets are $39 to $179.

Kennedy Center Opera House

Through Sept. 8

Dear Evan Hansen

A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed he could have. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he’s always wanted: a chance to finally fit in. “Dear Evan Hansen” is the deeply personal and profoundly contemporary musical about life and the way we live it. Tickets are $79 to $175.

Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

Sept. 9 to Oct. 6

Fairview

Beverly insists the celebration for grandma’s birthday be perfect. But her husband is useless, her sister is into the wine and her daughter’s secrets are threatening to derail the day. Meanwhile a group of spectators has put them all under surveillance. Soon the voyeurs launch an invasion on the festivities, forcing the family to battle for their very identities in this original work about race that both challenges and entertains us. Tickets start at $34.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Sept. 11 to 22

What the Constitution Means to Me

Fifteen-year-old Heidi Schreck earned her college tuition money by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In her boundary-breaking new play, the Obie Award winner resurrects her teenage self in order to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women in her family and the founding document that shaped their lives. Tickets are $49 to $169.

Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater

Sept. 12 to Oct. 13

Life Is a Dream (La Vida es Sueño)

Set in Poland in the 17th century when its influence and power in Europe had waned, “Life Is a Dream!” explores tyranny, fate and free will. Weaving together the stories of Segismundo, who was imprisoned at birth by his father King Basilio to prevent the fulfillment of a prophecy, and Rosaura, who acts to restore her honor and control her destiny, this famous Spanish Golden Age drama addresses the universal question “Who is the master of one’s fate?” Tickets are $45 to $48.

GALA Hispanic Theatre

Sept. 13 to Oct. 20

Jitney

August Wilson’s “Jitney” opens Arena Stage’s season-long festival celebrating the Pulitzer Prize-winning giant with Ruben Santiago-Hudson directing his 2017 Broadway production. The dramatic story of a Pittsburgh jitney station, a symbol of stability, struggles against an oppressive lack of opportunity and unnerving neighborhood gentrification that threatens the way they live and work. The drivers resist powerful forces while coming to grips with their pasts to fulfill their own hopes and dreams for the future. Tickets are $41 to $95.

Arena Stage

Sept. 24 to Nov. 3

Escaped Alone

In a serene British garden three old friends are joined by a neighbor to engage in amiable chitchat — with a side of apocalyptic horror. The women’s talk of grandchildren and TV shows breezily intersperses with tales of terror in a quietly teetering world where all is not what it seems. Please call for ticket information.

Signature Theatre

Sept. 25 to Oct. 20

The Tempest

When the magical and powerful Prospero creates a sea storm, he gets more than he bargained for as romantic drama, deception and quests for vengeance emerge from the depths. Synetic’s legendary, cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” returns, with the famed water-filled stage and visual poetry that made the original production an unforgettable sensation when it premiered in 2013. Tickets start at $20.

Synetic Theater

Sept. 27 to Oct. 27

Fences

Set in segregated Pittsburgh in the 1950s, Fences depicts the life of Troy Maxson, a former Negro League baseball star now scraping by as a sanitation worker. A towering figure facing thwarted aspirations, Troy attempts to assert control in his life through his relationships with his wife and son. But even as he takes responsibility for their safety and well-being, he betrays them each in ways that will forever alter their lives. Tickets are $15 to $70.

Ford’s Theatre

Through Sept. 29

Assassins

From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, nine would-be and successful presidential assassins inspire each other to pull the trigger and change their worlds in a perverse, wry and thrillingly entertaining vaudeville. Please call for ticket information.

Signature Theatre